Get Out review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
GET OUT
Is it a horror movie? A thriller? A social commentary? A documentary? I say all of the above. As I’m writing this Get Out has been nominated for four Oscar awards including Best Picture and Best Director. I’d like to see it win at least one of them but the Academy doesn’t exactly love horror – more on that later.
Get Out is a film from first time Director Jordan Peele whom you may know from Mad TV and Key & Peele. Known for comedy of course, his first shot at horror and as a Director is a huge success. Get Out has earned rave reviews from fans and critics alike. It’s smart, scary and funny. A good mix of everything.
The premise of Get Out is about Chris, a black photographer who goes to meet his white girlfriend Rose’s parents for the first time. Now I hate to admit it, but I didn’t see this movie until about a month ago. What I’ll mention though is that everyone who did see it did a good job of never ruining it for me. On the way to her parent’s house we get our first taste of the racial unease when a white cop asks for Chris’s ID even when he’s not driving. Rose gets hot about it but it all ends well. Meeting the parent’s seems to go well – we get the great you knew it was coming line from the Father that he would have voted for Obama a third time. You know something is going on with the two black servants who work for the family and at the party we see everyone seemingly admiring Chris’s body and of course someone telling him that they know Tiger Woods. I think once we have the scene where Chris takes the photo of the other black man at the party – who is married to a woman maybe older than his Mother and he flips out we know the story is going to get weird.
The auction scene is spooky. The camera cranes out to reveal the photo of Chris (so nicely displayed by the way) while everyone plays the strangest game of bingo you’ll ever see as they put in their bid. After that things get cranked up. You think everything MIGHT be okay when he convinces Rose to leave but when he finds a box full of photos of her with other black men (and women) you know it is NOT going to be okay. You can really feel that fear in him when he’s yelling at Rose to get the car keys so they can leave. As she’s fumbling around for them you still think she might be on his side. While he’s tied up in the basement he watches a message played back to him on the television. The Armitages have seemingly perfected – now stay with me – the ability to transplant the brains of white people into the bodies of black people. The host body remains in the “sunken place” that Missy put Chris in when she hypnotized him. Chris manages to escape and wipes out everyone. He does a number on Dean when he gores him with the deer antlers. Missy does her best to go for the cup of tea so she can knock him out again with the clink, clink of the spoon but he’s too quick and knocks it off the table. Rose’s younger brother doesn’t go quietly either; He’s a real slimy character so I don’t think anyone will miss him. We see how whacked out Rose is while she’s chowing down on cereal, enjoying a nice glass of milk and trolling the internet for the next black guy to abduct. I love the end. Chris is so close to getting away. He’s fighting with Rose when you hear the sirens and flashing lights. Shit. Here are the cops and the first thing they see is a black guy attacking a white woman right? Nah, it’s just his buddy Rod to save the day.
There are a couple of movies I think of after I watched Get Out. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Stepford Wives. I think this movie has a piece of all of those. There is no physical monster. It’s humanity or society. Why are these people doing these things? Are they privileged white people who don’t know any better? Are they just curious to see what life would be like as an African American? Of course we see how terribly wrong these ideas go at the end of the movie. When you treat people inhumanely you get what you deserve. I love a scary movie with a real message. Peele just straight out tells us this movie is about racism. Everyone has been in situations where they feel like they just don’t belong and meeting our significant other’s parents can be uncomfortable regardless of race or gender. The title of the movie is perfect. While dealing with the reality of the subject matter, Peele manages to create a lot of laughs. How great is Chris’s buddy Rod? One of my favorite characters in the movie. He knows right off the bat that going to visit a white girl’s family is a bad idea. Well, he was right. He kind of becomes the hero. He connects the dots about the character that was kidnapped in the opening scene and saves Chris at the end. Also a good job at poking fun of the TSA at the same time. By the way since when do TSA Agents have squad cars?...
The fact that this is Peele’s first movie is impressive. He does a great job of pacing. Slow burn to start as we slowly start to see what’s going on then all out carnage at the end. It’s not easy to send his message the way he did. I thought the cast was excellent and everyone played their roles very well. Is it possible Bradley Whitford is even better in this movie than he was in Billy Madison? It’s very smart and entertaining while talking about a topic that is taboo but is always on the front burner in the world. How about Chris literally picking cotton out of the chair to plug his ears? Given that we’ll see what the Academy thinks when it’s time to give out awards. I mentioned we’d get back to this. Horror is not popular in Hollywood. The Silence of the Lambs swept the Oscars in 1991 but everyone wanted to call it a “thriller” It’s a horror movie. Even great horror films seem to only pick up an award for sound editing. Maybe costume design. That’s all I’m going to say about that. I admitted I waited too long to watch Get Out but if Jordan Peele goes back into horror for his next film, I’ll want to see it right away.
Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRfnevzM9kQ